India Solar Electricity: Lamps, Fans & Lights for Chickens

Imagine a world without electricity. Can you visualize it? How would your life change? No electric stoves, refrigerators, or microwaves. No television! How would you cook food? Read a book? Conduct business?

If you had just a small amount of electricity, how would you use it? Would you light your room? Run a small fridge? Charge your phone? Take a minute and envision your life with only a little “juice.” For so long, you had none. Now, you finally have access to something much of the world has had for generations.

Such is the life for many thousands of miles away in India, a country housing the world’s second largest population. Although electricity for many Indians is rare at best, they have the sun’s energy to fuel life.

The sun rises in Uttar Pradesh, one of eight states in India, about 200 million souls in the north. Humid air clings to your body. In the dark morning, you light a kerosene lamp, its fumes spreading from your small home.

Chickens, penned in a cage, watch their night light bulb turn off. A fan cools your children’s faces as they slowly wake. Another day begins.

You live in the vast country called India. Electrical power is yet a dream for a quarter of the population. Except you. Your family has a solar panel attached to your home’s roof.

The Facts

1.5 billion people worldwide do not have electricity. Another billion people regularly face brownouts.

India Solar Electricity is Growing at 250% Per Year

Paul Needham, President of Simpa Networks, a solar service company, spoke with me in 2014. His company provides solar solutions to Uttar Pradesh in Northern India.

Homeowners make an affordable down payment to lease a solar panel, battery, fan, and lights. At any time, they are able to top up electricity use like they would for minutes on their mobile phone. Two years later, a family owns the solar system.

Simpa will offer its service to 4 million people within the next 5 years and another 25 million in the next ten.

This company is only one example of India’s solar electricity growth. The government’s master plan calls for 50 “solar cities.” Deloitte says India can produce three times the solar power as all energy output in 2012. Currently, India produces only 1% of its solar potential.

India solar electricity could become a model for the world. (China coal burning pollution is avoidable in India.) A solar-powered India offers enormous opportunities for clean energy that will benefit the country and set the stage for others as well.

India’s prime minister continues to spur these opportunities and has ordered coal-fired plants to bundle solar and fossil fuels. His most recent visit to Silicon Valley and conversations with Tesla’s Founder, Elon Musk, proves that India solar electricity will continue to grow.

Back to Uttar Pradesh – New Day Dawning

The sun sets in Uttar Pradesh as your family watches a movie on a mobile tablet. Bright, energy-efficient lights have now replaced the kerosene lamps. A large fan in the corner helps cool the nighttime air.

As your chickens nestle in for the night, they turn toward a light panel, illuminating them amid dark shadows.

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